This is my entry for J4K 2010 competition.PLAY REMOVED DUE TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT

This is my initial attempt of fitting the 1980's classic into 4096 bytes.

Navigate RockFord through 20 caves, avoiding fireflies and falling boulders, collecting diamonds and squishing butterflies in order to acquire sufficient diamonds to open the exit to the next cave.

I have tried to keep the game play as close as i could to the original, however, I have had to make compromises and have deviated from the original in the following manner:

- no sound... which is a little sad but fitting the original graphics and original 20 levels is already a tight squeeze... putting in theme music and sound effects goes over the 4k budget enormously...- no title screen and thus no ability to start at different caves.- unlimited lives... I have removed the original set number of lives and instead went for a score penalty for dying. If you die or time runs out you will restart the same cave you are on. In this way i hope to compromise for the inability to start at different levels.- only one difficulty setting.

CALL FOR TESTERS

Could people please attempt to play the game and give feed back?

Especially:- does it work on your platform? (linux, windows (all flavours), mac)- is it too difficult? too easy?- any bugs... i mean features spotted? - any annoyances or simple features you would like to see which would make it a better game?

hmm... bugger about the flickering... It does not show on winXP java 6_17... I will have to draw to a single image and then blit it instead of blitting the text image and map images seperately. I hope i can fitt it in!

Re pushing I can increase the likelihood of rock pushing... maybe 50/50 would be sufficent.

yeah, level three is quite difficult... i might reduce the numer of diamonds needed to 3 instead of 4.

-I have hopefully fixed the flickering... can Abuse or pjt33 confirm or dash my hopes -boulder pushing now 50/50 chance-reduced the number of butterflies needed to kill in level 3 from 4 to 3 to make it easier.

re: bonbon-chan... i have been uploading some broken versions while making this update... please try again now

Gotta say I remember this game being much better than it actually is =)Nothing against the quality of your clone ofcourse!Just the fondness of memories clouding objective judgement - and perhaps we've gotten used to games being much easier & less frustrating

Flickering is fixed. I've found out what's killing me. If I dig vertically next to a boulder and keep digging down, the boulder moves across above me and then falls down. I figure this is intended and that digging down twice next to a boulder is a no-no.

Flickering is fixed. I've found out what's killing me. If I dig vertically next to a boulder and keep digging down, the boulder moves across above me and then falls down. I figure this is intended and that digging down twice next to a boulder is a no-no.

boulders will "roll off" other boulders and brick wall so yes, if you dig vertically down next to two boulders on top of each other then the top one will roll on to you and squish you

Gotta say I remember this game being much better than it actually is =)Nothing against the quality of your clone ofcourse!Just the fondness of memories clouding objective judgement - and perhaps we've gotten used to games being much easier & less frustrating

That is good news!

I think the keyboard lets it down as a controller... the joystick was better for this game. But yes nostalgia does gloss over the bad bits. It is like playing bubble bobble... not really that enthralling!

Yeah, flickering's fixed. Can anyone confirm that there is an exit on level 3? It's driving me nuts.

I never played the original. I played a game on the Amstrad which was probably identical gameplay but had much better graphics. Can't remember what it was called, but it was themed around squirrels.

Normally the exit is in the bottom right of the map in the surrounding border... i.e. not a stand alone exit.

I likewise had an Amstrad. I played the amstrad port of the game. I was actually considering to make Fruity Frank which was bundled with the amstrad cpc 664 but i dont think there would have been as big an appeal to the wider audience. I personally found fruity frank to be more intense/fun.

I think the keyboard lets it down as a controller... the joystick was better for this game.

There's a Jagex game in this genre (Crazy Crystals, on the Funorb portal) which uses keyboard and it feels like the right controller. But then I haven't used a joystick for about 10 years, so I'm used to keys for everything.

Your Boulder Dash 4k reminds me very much of the Amstrad version I used to play. And the death system, diminishing the player's score, is definitely better and much less frustrating than in the original game. Now the average player can hope to go to the end of the game without cheating !

Concerning Fruity Frank, it would not be too difficult for you to convert it to Java 4K, as its engine is very close to the Boulder Dash one. It is certainly more intense to play, however it completely lacks the exploration and puzzle aspects of Boulder Dash. So don't have too many regrets with your choice.

hmm... i shall think on it, I am no graphic artist, but i think i can make suitable sprites, the game mechanics will be more tricky to make the game "fun" and level design... maybe i will "cheat" and ask the forum goers to make some for me

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